4 months ago
Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr has raised concerns astir the finality of Bitcoin transactions, stating that the wide accepted six-block confirmation regularisation nary longer holds.
According to him, transaction finalization present takes implicit a week, casting uncertainty connected Bitcoin’s absorption to censorship.
Finality refers to the constituent wherever reversing a transaction becomes practically intolerable owed to the immense computational powerfulness required. Traditionally, this threshold was reached erstwhile six blocks were added aft the archetypal transaction.
Why Bitcoin transactions are taking longer to finalize
Dashjr argues that the accepted modular nary longer applies owed to the expanding centralization of Bitcoin mining pools. In a Feb. 8 X post, helium explained that helium attempted to update the six-block confirmation people successful Bitcoin Knots, a Bitcoin Core alternative.
However, his calculations indicated that owed to Antpool’s important stock of the web hashrate, achieving 95% information present requires implicit 800 blocks—equivalent to astir 5.5 days.
Data from the HashRate Index shows that Antpool controls astir 16.67% of Bitcoin’s full hash power, trailing Foundry USA astatine 33.12%. Other large pools see F2Pool (8.87%), MARA Pool (6.06%), and SecPool (5.19%).
However, Dashjr disputes these figures, asserting that respective pools, specified arsenic Braiins and perchance ViaBTC, enactment arsenic proxies for Antpool, making its power acold greater. He besides noted that galore miners unknowingly lend to imaginable web reorganizations by operating nether centralized pools.
Industry concerns
Industry experts person echoed these concerns, informing that the expanding dominance of a fewer mining pools exposes Bitcoin to imaginable censorship and adjacent a 51% attack.
Bob Burnett, CEO of Barefoot Mining, said that if a azygous entity controls a important information of the network’s hash power, it could manipulate the blockchain by reorganizing transactions.
He noted:
“At a minimum, [the threat] is existential to Bitcoin being censorship resistant and it besides means immutability takes a precise agelong clip to achieve.”
Considering this, Burnett proposed that retail investors play a relation successful restoring decentralization.
He suggested pressuring publically traded mining firms to dispersed their hash powerfulness crossed smaller pools, ensuring nary azygous entity controls implicit 15% of Bitcoin’s network. If miners refuse, helium believes investors should divest their stocks and publically telephone retired non-compliant firms to support Bitcoin’s decentralized nature.
Meanwhile, not everyone agrees that this contented is arsenic terrible arsenic Dashjr claims. Daniel Roberts, the co-founder of Iris Energy Ltd, downplayed these concerns, suggesting that Bitcoin’s plan allows it to self-regulate implicit time.
Roberts added:
“Bitcoin whitethorn not perfect, and we should proceed to effort and amended it, but these types of issues are mostly either self-correcting oregon built into the plan intentionally.”
The station Bitcoin’s transaction finality present takes implicit a week owed to mining centralization, developer claims appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.
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